What a Business Makes

Guest post by: John Jantsch
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Weekend Favs May Twenty One - By John Jantsch

I’ve owned my business now for over twenty years, I love it, wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve worked very hard to make my business what it is, but I’ve finally come to the conclusion that, after years of hard work in this endeavor - you don’t only make a business in this process; a business makes you.

Boulder FlatironsBut, there’s the ironic rub. As a business makes you, it also borrows much from you. The fears, baggage, sabotage and hesitation that manifest themselves in your inner, daily life, will likely show up in your business as well.

That’s the raw, joyous, scary, freeing thing about owning a business really.

The relationship between what a business owner does in a business and does in a life is not something that can be balanced, only recognized. You can plan, strategize, map, vision, plot and document yourself a clear, concise business, but the only certain way to be wrong is to believe you can control what happens all along the way. But, letting go is maybe the hardest business skill to learn.

As something that will leave a long, deep and permanent mark on your life, detachment from much of the “known how” is essential. The need for control is often based in fear of the unknown.

If you find that your business, for example, surges and retreats, over and over again, only to remain locked on an invisible plateau, it’s a sure sign that something inward is holding back your outward reality.

you don’t only make a business in this process; a business makes you.

For so many business owners this hold back is based in an inability to give in to love. Now, this isn’t something that’s addressed enough in business terms so let me clarify. By love I don’t mean the romantic, soft, Hollywood kind of thing. I’m talking about the strong, brave, intuitive kind of love that takes guts to live and more guts to acknowledge in a business. It’s the kind of love that manifests itself in fair decisions, a desire to change things for the good, a letting go of the ego long enough to learn from your mistakes, and a passion for things that sells and attracts in and of itself.

Looking deep inside for clues to things that are holding your business back is tough work, but it may indeed be the best kind of strategic work you can engage in. I find a hike up a mountain can be a great way to get the process started. Careful though, it’s not always pretty up there.

There’s nothing simple about what I’m suggesting, but if you are to make this thing called a business serve this thing called a life - let it glimpse a piece of the best of what resides inside and you just might find that you more easily manifest something stunning outside.

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Weekend Favs May Twenty One - By John Jantsch

About the Author: John Jantsch

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John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing - The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide (foreword by Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth) published by Thomas Nelson - due out in the fall of 2006 He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system and Duct Tape Marketing Authorized Coach Network. His Duct Tape Marketing Blog was chosen as a Forbes favorite for small business and marketing and is a Harvard Business School featured marketing site. His blog was also chosen as "Best Small Business Marketing Blog" in 2004, 2005 and 2006 by the readers of Marketing Sherpa.
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